Delhi High Court seeks response from AIIMS for denying treatment

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Saturday came to the rescue of a destitute woman, who was allegedly denied free treatment of total hip replacement surgery by the AIIMS. The court sought response from the Central government and AIIMS authorities.

Asha Devi, 35, a resident of Bihar, moved the high court after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) asked her to deposit in advance Rs 1,27,000 for the treatment.

Justice Manmohan also issued notice to the Bihar government as to why the poor patients were not getting free treatment in Bihar itself and were forced to seek medical help in Delhi.

The court also directed the medical superintendent/director of AIIMS to get Asha Devi examined and file a status report on or before the next date of hearing, February 19.

AIIMS refused to perform a total hip replacement surgery on Asha Devi for Reiter’s Disease, on account of her inability to pay the hefty cost of the surgery, said the plea.

Asha Devi belongs to the lower strata of the society and said the Centre refused to bear the expenses of the treatment required by her, thereby, violating her human and fundamental right to life as guaranteed to her under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, advocate Ashok Agarwal, appearing for Devi, told the court.

“Every person is entitled to equality before law and equal protection of law. Also, no person can be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. Thus, the state is bound to protect life and liberty of every human being,” he further contended.

Asha Devi is an illiterate married woman and her husband is 100 percent hearing-impaired and unemployed. They have four children — three of whom are attending government school in Bihar. Her father-in-law works as an agriculture labourer and earns an average of Rs.5-6 thousand a month. The family has no other source of income, said the plea.

Around six months back, she was advised by a doctor in Bihar to approach AIIMS for treatment.

Accordingly, she approached AIIMS on December 16, 2015, where doctors advised total hip replacement surgery for her.

AIIMS asked her to deposit the hefty amount towards the cost of implants. Thereafter, she made a written representation on January 19 to the hospital and the central government requesting that she be provided totally free treatment as she belongs to the economically-weaker section and lives in abject poverty.

The plea added that she possesses income certificate dated December 19, 2015 from the government of Bihar indicating annual income of Rs.70,000, and National Food Security Card which is issued to a person having less than Rs.1 lakh annual income.

The hospital refused to provide her free treatment saying she should have an income certificate below Rs.4,000 per month income or a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card — Devi does not possess either.

She said her condition was continuing to deteriorate each day and she needed immediate surgery.(IANS)

The digital india project includes several projects which will focus on better governance, knowledge. Wikimedia Commons

Digital India Project will boost the development process and will help the citizens to engage themselves in a hassle-free way

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Digital Media program to push the use of technology

The Ministry of Tourism has taken up the initiative of implementatingTourist Visa on Arrival enabled with Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA)

Digital India initiative has been launched by the government of India to increase digital connectivity and make governance more transparent. The initiative includes several projects which will focus on better governance, knowledge and universal phone connectivity across the country. Under the digital program, the government plans to introduce Public Internet Access Program, Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity and much more. These all platforms will boost the development process and will help the citizens to engage themselves in a hassle-free way.

Also Read: Section 377: Does It Really Has Anything To Do With Indian Culture?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Digital Media program to push the use of technology to connect and empower people in areas relating to health, education, labour and employment, commerce, etc. The governance is shifting from e-governance to m-governance where “M” stands for mobile governance. The initiative is to bring big investments in the technology sector and this will further help in creating a participative, transparent and responsive government.

The governance is shifting from e-governance to m-governance where “M” stands for mobile governance. Wikimedia Commons

Here are some key initiatives which form a part of Digital India week:

SWATCH BHAARAT app

The Swachhta Abhiyan is an initiative by the government for informing the citizens of sanitation and hygiene. The program has turned into a national campaign with citizens becoming active participants in cleanliness drive across the nation.

The dream of Mahatma Gandhi of a ‘Clean India’ is being realized with millions of people across the country joining the cleanliness initiatives of the government departments to make India clean as a part of this ‘Jan Andolan’.

The Swachhta Abhiyan is an initiative by the government for informing the citizens of sanitation and hygiene. Wikimedia Commons

Website: https://swachhbharat.mygov.in/

PRADHAN MANTRI JAN-DHAN YOJANA (PMJDY)

Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana is a financial inclusion plan comprising an integrated approach to bind all the financial transactions of all the citizens. The plan contemplates universal access to banking facilities at least one basic banking account in every household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension facility.

The scheme proposes of channelling all Government benefits (from Centre / State / Local Body) to the beneficiaries’ accounts and pushing the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Government.

Website: http://pmjdy.gov.in/

3. GOODS AND SERVICE TAX NETWORK (GSTN)

The GST System Project is a remarkable and complex IT initiative. It is for the first time that a uniform interface is established for the taxpayer and a common and shared IT infrastructure between the Centre and States.

The platform is a trusted National Information Utility (NIU) that will help in achieving a reliable and efficient IT backbone for the smooth functioning of the Goods & Services Tax system. It enables economic agents to leverage the entire nation as one market with minimal indirect tax compliance cost.

Website: h ttp://www.gstn.org/index.php

4. FARMER PORTAL

The Farmer Portal provides all the relevant information and services to the farming community and private sector through information and communication technologies. It will help in supplementing the existing delivery channels provided for by the department.

The Farmer Portal provides all the relevant information and services to the farming community and private sector. Wikimedia Commons

Farmers’ Portal is an initiative to create a one-stop window for meeting all informational needs relating to Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries sectors production, sale/storage of an Indian farmer.

With this, Indian Farmer will not be required to scuffle through different websites for any information.

Website: http://farmer.gov.in/

5. eVISA

The Ministry of Tourism has taken up the initiative of implementatingTourist Visa on Arrival enabled with Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). It strongly backed by Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation for implementing this programme.

The e-Tourist Visa enables the foreign visitor to apply for an Indian Visa from his/her home country without visiting the Indian embassy and can also pay the visa fee online.

Website: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html

6. DIGITIZE INDIA

Digitize India is an initiative under the Digital India Program of the Government of India. Digitize India Platform will provide digitization of services of all the scanned document or physical documents for any official work.

The focus is to digitalize all the existing data which are in different formats into data extracts for document management

Website: https://digitizeindia.gov.in/

7. DIGITAL AIIMS

Through Digital AIIMS program, every Patient visiting AIIMS will be given a Digital Identity by the Unique Health Identification Number and it will be generated on an Aadhar platform.

Through Digital AIIMS program, every Patient visiting AIIMS will be given a Digital Identity. Wikimedia Commons

The project was initiated in January 2015 with the creation of an effective linkage between AIIMS, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY).

Website.http://ehospital.nic.in/ehospital/

8. DIGILOCKER

Targeted at the idea of paperless governance, DigiLocker is the flagship program of the Indian Government. The initiative aimed at transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

DigiLocker runs parallel with Digital India’s vision, where every citizen of the country will be provided with a private space on a public cloud and making all documents/certificates available in this space.

Through this platform, issuance and verification of documents will be done in a manner, thus eliminating the requirement of any physical documents.